PROPIEDADES DE LOS RECUBRIMIENTOS APLICADOS

Place identity and place image appear in the framework to form an entity for the aspect of place branding. Few have examined place (e.g. like a city) as a brand, with some exceptions, mainly the tourism industry (e.g. Kotler et al. 1993) or related countries as a brand (Kotler & Gertner 2002; Gilmore 2001; Olins 2001). It is not possible to create any image for a place without a strategic decision on the contents of the place's identity. When the place has created a clear concept of its desired identity, the foundations of its image have been established. If place marketing communication in place marketing practices is successful, the place can expect that its future image will be just as desired by the place marketing planning group the members of which are place strategists.

The place identity is how the place is wanted to be perceived. The place identity is a unique set of place brand associations that the management wants to create or maintain. The associations represent what the place stands for and imply a promise to customers from the place organisation. (Modified from Aaker 1996).

Identity is the active part where a place can exercise some influence, and image is the passive process outcome of the marketing communication and even of the process coincidences, without which a place can influence a specific image outcome. A place’s identity, as with corporate identity, is a sum of characteristics that differentiate the place from other places. Therefore, the identity is a result of planned activities within the place marketing project and is the objective state, the image being the subjective.

The chosen attraction factors of a place are communicated to the selected target groups, which represent the present aspect of the place’s choices in place marketing. A place needs not only the umbrella brand, but also sub-brands, for each sub-market and the business fields where the place considers itself unique. The brands each need a different strategy. Marketing communications in its various forms, such as direct marketing or exhibitions, can be used in the place marketing practices as a connecting bridge between the identity and the image of the place. Social responsibility will be a new competition tool and presents a strong argument in marketing and branding. The organisation behind the brand should give a holistic signal to the customers about social responsibility. (Economics 2000; also Kapferer 2000; Keller 1998). Brands make fun and choices easier, and they also guarantee quality. A brand which offers less of a product, and more of a way of life will better satisfy changing needs (Economics 2000). It is essential to keep branding and marketing as an organisation’s core responsibility, and almost everything else in the customer value process can be outsourced, without decreasing the customer value (Rainisto 2000b; Aaker & Joachimsthaler 2000). Place marketing and brand building should be nurtured in the place’s own hands, although outside consultants are often needed to help. However, many options exist where a place can search for partners to outsource less vital functions. The scarce resources should be allocated to the most critical strategic place marketing issues through strategic market planning.

After the identification of the strategic opportunities for the place, it is possible to make rational and politically united decisions about the place’s identity factors. These factors should represent the most unique know-how-expertise and resources of the place, in comparison to the competing places. Branding as one aspect of place marketing, and as a major core technique of marketing, can be the leading theme through the place marketing process, and branding can be a good starting point for place marketing.

If the city decides on what it wants to be, then it will try to make its appearance, services and messages consistent with the chosen brand identity. A city will have a brand image that varies among different viewers whether or not the city engages in active brand development that must be congruent with the reality of the place. If the reality must first be changed or improved the branding should not be heavily promoted until the reality is in place. (Source: Kotler´s E-mail-message 25 November 2001 at 11:40).

Place Image

A place’s image is the sum of beliefs, ideas and impressions that people have of a place. Images represent a simplification of a large number of associations and pieces of information connected with the place. (Kotler et al. 1999).

While the brand identity is the active element in a place’s marketing process, making use of integrated marketing communication, for example, brand image is its passive counterpart, without which a place cannot decide on its exact form of outcome (e.g. Keller 1998). The management of place marketing can only hope that the real image will follow in accordance with the desired identity communicated by the place. The image of a place is a result of complex long-term activities, which can build the unique character of the place. Therefore, image is not easy to copy, like many activities of the operative marketing mix.

A place’s image is the sum of beliefs, ideas, and impressions that people have of a place. Images represent a simplification of a large number of associations and pieces of information connected with the place. Image differs from stereotype in that a stereotype suggests a widely held image that is highly distorted and simplistic, and carries either a favourable or unfavourable attitude toward the place. An image, on the other hand, is more personal perception of a place that can vary from person to person. (Kotler et al. 1993).

It is important to position the brand within the selected target group against the competition. The brand should be different from the competing offerings in at least one dimension that is valued by the customer. A place customer needs a good reason to be interested in the location. Brand position, part of brand identity and value proposition, is communicated to target groups to show its advantage over competing brands. Value added place brands offer more benefits than the competitors´ more anonymous and vague brands in other locations.

The image of the place is also the outcome of the systematic marketing communication process. The image is always “true”, being the real experience of the target group. Rein (Interview in Evanston 10 April 2002) takes another perspective, and regards branding as one category of image, and image as the umbrella phenomenon. In this present study, however, branding is seen as the umbrella category, and image as one aspect of branding, which is, however, a matter of

the way one looks at it. A place buyer replaces objective information with subjective observations, opinions and judgments, connected with his/her own characteristics. The image of a place, as a vehicle, simplifies and systematises the place buying process, as well as reduces the risk. After diagnosing the existing image, and the place product analysis, it is possible to support, modify or change the place’s image. Strategic image management (SIM) (Kotler & Gertner 200247) examines, what determines a place’s image and measures and designs the image among target groups. A place’s image must be valid, believable, simple, distinctive and appealing (Kotler et al. 1999: 160-176). However, meanings are often linked to a place in an unconvincing way, images not corresponding with the real substance (Ward 1994: 234-240). Place competition has led to many merely cosmetic changes such as in the outlooks of the market place or public stations, when a place is remade to fit a promotable image48. A facelift alone will not solve a place’s image problems, because the whole place identity is decisive in the perceived image (Nasar 1998: 3). The real substance of the place must be so near the image wanted that outside “observers” will not get confused in their perceived associations towards the place.

When cities are produced as commodities, the long-term effect of the image cannot be realised, as this takes time (also Holcomb 1994: 115-130). It is important in business marketing, as it is in attracting tourists, to evaluate the place image against the images of the competing regions from the point of view of the place customers, and bear in mind that different target groups hold different images of the same place.

Poor perceptions of a city can devalue its image and have far reaching consequences for its future prosperity. These negative associations may reduce the likelihood of inward investment, undermine business community activities and have a detrimental effect on the number of visitors, thereby exacerbating urban decline. By contrast an improved “brand”

47 _{Definition of SIM (Kotler & Gertner 2002: 254): Strategic image management is the ongoing process of}

researching a place´s image among its audiences, segmenting and targeting its specific image and its demographic audiences, positioning the place´s benefits to support an existing image or create a new image, and communicating those benefits to the target audiences.

48 _{Äikäs (2001: 292) discusses in his study about the building of city images (cases Turku and Oulu) the}

transformation of the urban landscape (of welfare, industry or education, etc.) and argues that the urban landscape is rapidly transforming, into a landscape of images. In this process, place promotion can create a new basis for thinking about the landscape as a tool in city competition.

perception can reverse the downward trend and sow the seeds for urban renewal. (Trueman et al. 2001: 4).